If an alien species were to visit Earth with mysterious intentions, it just makes sense that we’d send Amy Adams to represent humankind. She’s empathetic, she’s approachable, she’s understanding, and she’s the total antithesis of the hostile and aggressive types we see facing off aliens in most sci-fi movies. (At least this is how I like to picture Amy Adams.)

In Denis Villeneuve‘s Arrival, Adams’ Dr. Louise Banks appears to have all those qualities as an expert linguist the military brings in to communicate with extraterrestrials. The first teaser for the new film gave us a quick glimpse as the alien arrival, and the new full trailer finally reveals a little more. In it Louise leads a team, including Jeremy Renner‘s Ian Donnelley and Forest Whitaker‘s Colonel Weber, inside an oval-shaped UFO. As she begins to make contact with the aliens and decipher their language, more and more similar-looking spaceships begin appearing across the globe. The aliens seem to be peaceful creatures and Louise thinks they’ve come to Earth to help bring a sense of unity among divided nations. Here’s the full synopsis:

When mysterious spacecrafts touch down across the globe, an elite team - lead by expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) - is brought together to investigate. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers – and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.

The terrifying unknown is often at the heart of Villeneuve’s films, from Incendies to Prisoners to Sicario. Each of those films’ strengths lie in the protagonist’s emotional relationships to the central mystery, and Arrival looks to be right in line with that theme. What looks most exciting about the Arrival trailer is not that it’s another alien movie about destruction and war (we have enough of those), but about Louise’ emotional journey in understanding the aliens.

The trailer hints that, unlike most sci-fi films where an alien arrival incites massive war against the space invaders, these aliens are trying to save us from our own wars. Or maybe I’m just as naive as Amy Adams and the aliens are just trying to destroy us. Either way, Arrival looks fantastic. The film arrives in theaters on November 11. Check out a selection of the new posters, which show the UFO shells in different parts of the world:

Paramount
Paramount
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Paramount
Paramount
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Paramount
Paramount
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Paramount
Paramount
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